Last night saw London Young Labour's first social of 2009. Around 90 LYL members attended a reception in Parliament with Jon Cruddas and Dawn Butler - two inspirational Labour MPs. We were also joined by several Labour Parliamentary candidates, including Chuka Umunna from Streatham. Both Jon and Dawn spoke passionately, with Dawn focussing on youth engagement and Jon speaking about the uncertain economic times we currently face. He paid particular attention to the strikes taking place across the country, and the threat of the BNP (left: LYL Chair, Tom Copley, with Dawn & Jon)

The message from the evening was clear: young people are the future of the Labour Party, and should be as active as possible within it. It was brilliant to see so many members - many of whom were attending their first LYL event - genuinely inspired and keen to become more involved by the end of the evening.

One other star of the night was our National Policy Forum Youth Rep, Rohini Simbodyal. Rohini is fighting a close by-election in Enfield where we hope to take a Council seat from the Tories. We need more young representatives on Councils in London. If you'd like to help out with her campaign then please email chair at londonyounglabour.org.uk. (right: Rohini Simbodyal with Dawn)

Labels: Dawn Butler, Jon Cruddas, social